Thought this book was not long, I fell in love with Cyd Charisse and can not wait to see what happens in the next 2 books. ( )

GINGERBREAD by Rachel Cohn, Simon & Schuster, March 2002

"My so-called parents hate my boyfriend, Shrimp. I'm not sure they even
believe he is my boyfriend. They take one look at his five-foot-five,
surfer-shirt-wearin', baggy-jeans-slouchin', Pop Tart-eatin',
spiked-hair-head self and you can just see confusion firebombs exploding in
their heads, like they are thinking, Oh no, Cyd Charisse, that young man is
not your homes.

"Dig this: He is."

GINGERBREAD is the exuberant and delightful story of Cyd Charisse. (Her
namesake was the beautiful dancer/actress from Singing in the Rain fame.)
Cyd Charisse is called by her full name so as not to be confused with her
stepfather Sid. (Her '"society wife" mother is named Nancy.) Anyway, Cyd
Charisse has been booted out of boarding school for getting caught in bed
with her blue-blood jock boyfriend. In addition to sex, Cyd Charisse had
become involved with alcohol, drugs, and shoplifting for the sake of
maintaining her "dream" relationship with the big man on campus.

Now she is spending the summer back in San Fran, living with her family, but
hanging with Shrimp. She met him while they were both doing mandatory
community service at a nursing home. Shrimp lives with his brother, a young
specialty coffee mogul named Java the Hut.

Her best friend is Sugar Pie, a wise old lady who resides at the nursing home.

Cyd Charisse has only met her biological father once. It was at an airport
when she was five, and he bought her the doll she named Gingerbread, who is
still her constant companion as well as her alter ego.

Cyd Charisse's world caves in once again when she is grounded indefinitely
for staying out too late at Shrimp's. After making everyone miserable, she
is shipped off to "Real Dad's" in New York.

This was one of those read ten pages, go back and start reading it aloud
because it's too much fun not to share books. The eventual reconciliation
between Cyd Charisse and Nancy is a bit saccharine, but otherwise it is the
first winner I've discovered among the early Spring advance copies.

Richie Partington
Richie's Picks ( )

Not having read any Rachel Cohn before (but having liked the Nick and Nora movie), I decided to delve into her work from the beginning. For the most part, I was impressed with this book. It manages to touch on some pretty serious stuff without being too depressing. Some of the 'lingo' felt a little bit forced, but most of the time it worked. I liked this well enough to keep reading Cohn's work.

There's certainly content here that will shock some folks, but none of THAT felt forced. I mean...teens have sex and make stupid decisions, and parents do, too. In this book, there are clearly consequences to those decisions, but they don't completely ruin the characters' whole lives FOREVER. I think that nuance is missing from a lot of teen literature, and I think it's an important thing to include. ( )

Not my favorite teen book. Seemed a bit too morally vacuous, which left me feeling unsatisfied at the end. The characters were very likeable, however. I will continue with the series. ( )

I think I am a very forgiving person... at least when it comes to books. I usually say that I really liked x and y about such and such book but I was a bit miffed by z.

This book has left me miff-less. No miffing to report here.

Short and sweet - the book... not at all the main character. But, the absence of "sweet-ness" in Cyd Charisse is probably one of the things about her that endears me to her.

The premise: The book is about this girl who carries around a doll named gingerbread which her real dad gave her at the airport one year and she’s kept it ever since for a reminder of her dad who she never sees.

My thoughts: Rachel Cohn's definitely got a cool style going for her in her writing. This is the first book of hers that I've read but I have watched Nick and Norah... and I will read the next two books about Cyd Charisse Shrimp and Cupcake to test out my theory. But it goes something like this: Illustrate a moment in time for a character and make you feel the impact of the moment, don't drag it on forever, make it short and simple, but include enough backstory to add dimension to the character... and make 'em irresistable. ( )